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Last of Army's Rank and File 

Whose Blood Drenched 

Kansas Soil. 1 

/^\UT in the Fort Leavenworth 
National Cemetery a small 
white marble pyramid monument 
bears this inscription: "To the mem- 
ory of Sergeant Theodore Papier 
and Private Robert Theims, Troop 
H, Sixth Cavalry, killed in an 
engagement with hostile Indians, 
April 23, 1875." 

There is nothing about 
the monument to draw the 
attention of the visitor to the cemetery, as there 
are many others in this city of the dead to the memo- 
ry of those who have fallen in engagements with In- 
dians. Yet, these two soldiers have made history for 
Kansas — in that they are the last of the rank and 
file of the United States Army, whose blood drenched 
its soil as the result of battle with Indians which 

'Written for the Leavenworth Times, by Henry Shindler, 
and reproduced in Vol. XII of the Kansas Historical Society 
Collections, 1911-12. 

Since the publication of this paper some curiosity and in- 
terest has been aroused in the Germaine girls, the tragic 
death of their parents and other members of the family. It 
was believed that other papers on the subject, together with 
official reports, placed in pamphlet form, would be an appro-* 
priate contribution for the future historian of Kansas. — H. S. 
1 




— 2— 

had been carried on in the defense of settlements and 
trade since 1829. They have also helped to make fur- 
ther history for Kansas in that they participated in 
what has become known as the bloodiest Indian en- 
gagement within its borders. 

The writer knew both men intimately and this 
accounts for his effort to give them a place in history. 
It was in April, 1875, the commanding officer of Fort 
Lyon, Col., was instructed to dispatch, without delay, 
a detachment of forty cavalry, under Lieut. Austin 
Henely, Sixth Cavalry, to Fort Wallace, Kansas. 
There the troops were to take the field and intercept, 
if possible, a band of Cheyennes which had escaped 
from the Fort Reno Agency, and were making their 
way across Kansas to the Platte River, to join the 
Northern Cheyennes. The detachment was on the 
trail within twenty-four hours and on April 23 over- 
took the band in the Sappa Valley, in what is now 
Clinton township, Rawlins County. They were taken 
completely by surprise, in the dawn of the day, and 
so fierce was the attack, so determined were the sol- 
diers to square accounts that when stock was taken 
after the finish, the dead among the hostiles num- 
bered more than forty, of which eight were squaws 
and children. The loss on the side of the soldiers was 
Papier and Theims, both killed instantly. None were 
wounded. The camp was totally destroyec, and the 
plunder secured required several wagons to carry, 
not counting a herd of nearly four hundred ponies 
which the troops rounded up. With these men it was 
a case of "Remember the Maine" sentiment for their 
shibboleth, by making it "Remember the Germaine 
Family," of which four members were massacred in 
1874 by this band, four girl members taken into cap- 
tivity, and rescued the following winter during 
the Miles campaign of 1874-5 in which these troopers 
participated. 



— 3— 

When the detachment returned to Fort Lyon, 
flushed with victory and the spoils of war, pandemo- 
nium reigned for joy. They were feasted to their 
hearts' content. And yet, in all this jubilation, the 
two comrades who lost their lives were not forgotten. 
A subscription was taken up and the monument re- 
ferred to placed over their graves at Wallace. When 
the post was abandoned some years ago, the dead in 
the cemetery were disinterred and brought to Fort 
Leavenworth and reinterred. Papier and Theims 
were both Germans, and it goes without saying, 
splendid soldiers. Both were popular in the troop. 

It was here where Homer W. Wheeler, now a 
colonel of cavalry, on the retired list, won his spurs as 
an officer of the army. At that time he was the tra- 
der at Fort Wallace. He possessed a thorough knowl- 
edge of that section of the country and volunteered 
his services to act as guide. The successful outcome 
of the engagement with the hostiles, largely due to 
this volunteer guide, led General Pope to recommend 
Mr. Wheeler for appointment in the army, a recom- 
mendation on which the War Department acted with 
promptness, so that by October 15, 1875, he wore 
the shoulder straps of a second lieutenant in the 
Fifth Cavalry. 

A wcrd for brave Austin Henely is due. Henely 
came to the United States from Ireland during the 
Civil War, when only a boy. He enlisted in the 
11th Infantry, and at the close of the war, through 
intercession of friends, was sent to West Point, where 
he graduated in 1872. His career in the army was 
cut short by an untimely accident. While serving in 
Arizona with his regiment, in an attempt to cross a 
stream, at flood tide, ordinarily shallow, he was car- 
ried off by the current, and in an attempt to save him 
Lieutenant Rucker, a brilliant young officer of the 
same regiment, also lost his life. 



—4— 

While to Papier and Theims belongs the distinc- 
tion of being the last of the rank and file to lose their 
lives in combat with hostile Indians on Kansas soil, a 
similar distinction belongs, for the commissioned 
ranks, to Lieutenant Colonel W. H Lewis, Nineteenth 
Infantry. 1 This officer was wounded at Punished 
Woman's Fork, Kansas, on the evening of Septem- 
ber 27, 1878, in an attempt to overtake the fleeing 
Cheyennes across the plains and died the following 
day. This was the last effort of the hostiles to raid 
the settlements and closes the Indian wars within 
the history of the state. 

1 William Henry Lewis succeeded Alfred Sully as Lieut- 
enant-colonel of the Nineteenth Infantry, joining the regi- 
mens at Baton Rouge Barracks, La., early in 1874. He was a 
native of Alabama and appointed to the academy from New 
York, in 1845. He was a major in the 7th Infantry at the time 
of his last promotion. Colonel Lewis' death caused deep sor- 
row among his brother officers and the enlisted men of the 
regiment. None knew him but to respect him. — H. S. 



The Fight on Sappa Creek 

Written by W. D. Street 1 , of Oberlin, Kansas 

T^ARLY IN THE YEAR 1875 a band of Northern 
-^ Cheyenne Indians, numbering about seventy- 
five persons all told, whose homes were with the Sioux 
in the vicinity of the Black Hills of Dakota, left the 
country of the Southern Cheyennes, in the Indian 
Territory, to make their way back north. 

They had been visiting their friends and allies in 
the South, and had probably assisted in raids on the 
Texas border and in skirmishes with the troops dur- 
ing the winter in that southland. They were pro- 
ceeding in a tolerably orderly manner across the state 
of Kansas, about forty miles west of the frontier set- 
tlements, when, on April 18, orders were issued to 
Austin Henely, second lieutenant Sixth United States 
cavalry, to intercept and turn back the fleeing band. 

On the 19th the scouting party, consisting of for- 
ty men of company H, Sixth cavalry, with Homer W. 
Wheeler, post-trader at Fort Wallace, as scout and 
guide, an engineer officer, a surgeon, and two team- 
sters, a total of forty-six men, left Fort Wallace, 
Kan., scouting southeast. On the divide between 
Twin Butte and Hackberry creeks the Indian trail 

Captain W. D. Street, came to Kansas from Ohio in 1861. 
He became identified with the northwest section of the state 
in 1869, where he located on a claim. He served as a soldier 
i T Tipany I, 19th Kansas Volunteers and in Company D, 

2u illion, State Militia, participating in the Indian cam- 

paign of 1869. In the legislative session of 1897 he was elected 
Speaker of the lower house. He resides at Oberlin, O. In 
preparing this paper Mr. Street traveled 100 miles in a wagon 
to view the locality, and to verify some points. Lieut. 
Henley's report varies in many particulars from the account 
given by Mr. Street and Hill P. Wilson, then sutler at Fort 
Hays, in a letter to the Society, says that at that time it was 
"understood that the least said about the affair the better for 
all concerned". Captain Street died about a year ago. 
5 



— 6— 

was discovered, leading northward. Pursuit was im- 
mediately commenced. The trail passed near Russell 
Springs, across the old trail of the Butterfield over- 
land stage route, crossing the Union Pacific railroad 
at a bridge about three miles west of Monument sta- 
tion, in territory now embraced in Logan county. 
Thence the trail led northward. 

On the hard lands of the plateau between the 
Union Pacific and Sappa creek, the Indians appar- 
ently divided their trail, each lodge or family taking 
separate routes, to meet at some given point further 
north— a favorite ruse of the Indians to throw pur- 
suers off the trail. After following a single trail for 
some distance it was lost entirely. The troops then 
marched northward toward Sappa creek with the 
hope of picking up the trail again. While on the 
march, April 22, a party of three buffalo hunters, 
Henry (Hank) Campbell, Charles Schroeder, and 
Samuel B. Srack, were met who informed Lieutenant 
Henely that the Indians were encamped on the North 
Fork of the Sappa (more properly the Middle Fork of 
the Sappa). 

Under the guidance of the hunters the troops 
pushed forward a few miles and went into camp un- 
til after sundown, when the march was continued to 
within a few miles of the supposed location of the 
camp. A halt was then made, and th^ scout and 
hunters went forward to locate the Indi i 
efforts were successful, and in the gray dawn of the 
morning of April 23, 1875, the troops s rived at a 
point in the valley of the Middle Fork oi. the Sappa 
about three-fourths of a mile below the camp. Herds 
of ponies were discovered grazing close at hand. A 
small detachment of the command was detailed to kill 
the herders and round up the ponies while the main 
body of the troops charged the village, located on the 
north side of the creek. 



— 7— 

The creek at this place was a wide, sluggish, 
marsh-like pond, several yards wide, probably caused 
by beaver dams, running almost due east, until about 
opposite where the teepees were pitched it turned 
rather sharply to the south and slightly toward the 
west, making a large loop, or horseshoe bend, and 
running back to the northeast, and then meandering 
away on its general eastward course. Within a few 
rods of the camp to the east and northeast was loca- 
ted a low and rather abrupt bluff of a semicircular 
formation, the southwestern edge of a long, regular 
tongue of land running down from the highlands and 
terminating with a gradual descent in the bend of 
the creek and further east and south. The abrupt 
formation of the bluff near the camp had been caused 
by the action of the flood-waters of the stream for 
ages past. Gullies had been furrowed out of the 
western face of this bluff, making admirable places 
for the protection of the Indian warriors, who soon 
took advantage of the location. 

The troops floundered through the muddy creek; 
were dismounted and formed their line in the tongue 
of land just mentioned to the east and northeast of 
the Indian camp. While the ground on the south side 
of the stream was rugged and broken, the land to the 
northward sloped away with a gradual and fairly 
smooth rise. The troops occupied an exposed position 
on this smooth ridge. This position was abandoned 
after the loss of two men killed. The troops were 
then posted at each end of the semicircular flat in 
which the Indian camp was located. This was great- 
ly to the advantage of the troops, as it enabled them to 
pour a raking cross-fire into the camp and the low 
bluff where the warriors had sought protection, with- 
out such great exposure as the level ridge first occu- 
pied presented. 

The fight was furious from the start, and never 



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Map of the site where Lieutenant Henely struck the Cheyennes April 23, 
1875, on section 14, township 5, range 33 west, Clinton township, Rawlins 
county. 

BY COURTESY OF MRS. STREET. 



— 9— 

ended while an Indian was left alive. Lieutenant 
Henely, in the report to his superior officers, says: 
' 'Nineteen dead warriors were counted; eight squaws 
and children were unavoidably killed by shots inten- 
ded for the warriors ; ,? making a total of twenty-seven 
reported killed. White hunters who visited the 
scene a few days after the fight told the writer that 
they counted between thirty-five and forty dead bod- 
ies, and later two or three others were found a short 
distance from the scene of the fray, bringing the total 
above forty, men women and children lying promis- 
cuously around the burnt remains of their camp, while 
a number of bodies, variouly estimated up to twenty- 
seven, had been thrown into a shallow sandy gully 
and partially buried by the troops, bringing the num- 
ber that were really killed up to nearly seventy, which 
is not far out of the way. Lieutenant Henely report- 
ed the destruction of twelve lodges; estimating five 
Indians to the lodge would be sixty. He also men- 
tiones a number of holes that were dug in the ground, 
which he thinks were for the protection of Indians 
who had no lodges. His report as to the number 
killed does not harmonize with conditions as found a 
few days later. He says: "From the war-bonnets 
and rich ornaments, I judge two were chiefs, and 
one, whose bonnet was surmounted by two horns, to 
be a medicine man. 1 The Indians were nearly all 

1 Hill P. Wilson, in a statement concerning this fight, 
relates the following strange coincidence: 

"Mrs. John Prower, of Las Animas, Colorado, until re- 
cently the wealthy widow ot John Prower, the pioneer cattle- 
man of the Upper Arkansas, is a full blooded Cheyenne wo- 
man. When Lieut. Henely, arrived at Fort Lyon, before leav- 
ing for Arizona, he had amongst his effects some of the para- 
phernalia of a medicine man of the Cheyenne tribe who had 
been killed in this fight. Medicine men are held in almost 
sacred consideration by all Indians. When Mrs. Prower saw 
these relics she 'took on' and went through the mourning 



—10- 

armed with rifles and carbines, the Spencer carbine 
predominating." 

According to the report, the fight lasted about 
three hours. The camp, consisting of twelve lodges, 
together with the camp-equipage and plunder, was 
burned or destroyed, very little beingretained. One 
hundred and thirty-four ponies were captured by the 
troops, buffalo hunters picking up several bands not 
rounded up by the soldiers. 

Lieutenant Henely makes no mention of the es- 
cape of any of the Indians, and the inference would 
be that he thought he had completely wiped the band 
out of existence. 

But one Indian, and one only, made his escape. 
A young man without a family in the camp, and 
another older one, made a dash for their lives toward 
the north, up the long, sloping hill. After getting a 
mile or more from the camp, and entirely out of the 
range of the big buffalo guns the hunters were using 
in the fight, they halted and gazed back on the field 
of carnage, when the one with a family said to the 
other: "You are safe now, go on. I am going back 
to die with my family," then wheeled his pony and 
rode back into the valley, and to his death. This in- 
formation came to the writer several years after the 
fight, through Ben Clark, an interpreter for the 
Cheyennes, and at one time General Custer's chief of 
scouts. He said to me, "The Cheyennes continue to 

ceremonies of the tribe. She kept up the crooning and wail- 
ing for three days. Her mourning ended, she refreshed her- 
self and made a prediction that 'the man who is responsible 
for the death of the medicine man will die within the year.' 
By a strange fatality her prediction was in part verified. He- 
nely was drowned in Arizona, July 11, 1878. Although not 
strictly within the limits of her prophecy, it would be hard to 
convince this untutored squaw that the Great Spirit had not 
intervened ultimately to avenge the death of the medi- 
cineman". 



—11— 

sing the praise of the hero who rode back to death 
with his family/ ' in that little valley far out on the 
Kansas frontier. Such a deed of valor deserves more 
than passing notice, even if enacted by a child of the 
prairie. 

The three hunters 1 mentioned before rendered 
good service as sharpshooters, their long-range sport- 
ing rifles carrying much further than the soldiers' 
carbines. 

It was a terrible tragedy enacted that April 
morning out on the Kansas plains, where women and 
babies met their deaths through the vicissitudes of 
war. One of the troopers told at Buffalo Park after- 
ward that what was supposed to be a roll of plunder 
was carelessly tossed into a roaring fire of teepees 
and teepee poles, when an outcry told them that the 
roll contained a living human being, a little Indian 
papoose. 

The writer has frequently visited the scene of 
this massacre; first within a short time after the fight. 
On several of these visits, in the early days, were 
plainly to be seen the evidences that Indians had but 
recently passed that way and paid their respects to 
their dead friends, leaving marks of various kind to 
designate the names, rank, and place where their 
friends fell in the fight. 

1 The report was circulated that ten or twelve hunters 
were engaged in the fight. Lieut. Henely makes no mention 
of the fact in his official report. The writer has never been 
able to secure positive confirmation of the statement, but ra- 
ther gives credence to the presence of the hunters. Several 
parties of hunters came into possession of herds of ponies, 
which they hurriedly drove east into the settlements, to pre- 
vent other bands of Indians from recapturing them. It was 
said that these ponies were given the hunters as their part of 
the loot in compensation for their participation in the fight. 
On the other hand, they may have found them straying 
around the prairie, and drove them off as unclaimed property 
— the spoils of war. The writer is inclined to the former pro- 
position that the hunters participated in the n°ght. 



—12— 

The annihilation of this band was a severe and 
bitter blow to the Cheyennes. Whether they de- 
served such a fate I am not prepared to judge; but 
three years later, on September 30 and October 1, 
1878, a band of Northern Cheyennes, under the lea- 
dership of Chief Dull Knife, in endeavoring to escape 
from the Cheyenne reservation in the Indian Terri- 
tory to their former home, up among the Black Hills 
of the Dakotas, and to their friends, the Sioux, swung 
eastward in their flight and wreaked fearful revenge 
on the innocent white people who had pushed their 
settlements out onto the Sappa and Beaver creeks in 
Decatur and Rawlins counties, where nearly forty 
unsuspecting men were killed, women outraged, and 
a vast amount of property destroyed. So ended the 
last scenes of strife and carnage in the beautiful and 
famous Sappa valley. The massacre of the Chey- 
ennes by Lieutenant Henely of the Sixth Cavalry, 
and the massacre of the white settlers by the Dull 
Knife band of Cheyennes, always appeared to me to 
be closely connected in the annals of border warfare, 
now a closed- book forever. Peace and quiet now 
reign in those beautiful valleys so given over but a 
few years ago, to scenes of bloodshed and death. 

And the ways of peace are the better ways. 




Lieutenant Henely's Report 

ON HIS return to Fort Wallace Lieutenant Henely 
submitted a report of his operations to Major 
H. A. Hambright, 19th Infantry, commanding post. 
In this report Lieutenant Henely says: 

"On the morning of the 19th of April, with forty 
men of H Company, Sixth Cavalry, Lieut. C. C. 
Hewitt, Nineteenth Infantry, engineer officer, Acting 
Assistant Surgeon F. H. Atkins, and Mr. Homer 
Wheeler, post-trader of Fort Wallace, as guide, fifteen 
days' rations, ten days' forage, and two six-mule 
teams, I started for Punished Woman's Fork to strike 
the trail of a party of Indians reported there. 

"My transportation, all that was at Fort Wallace, 
was so inadequate that I made only thirteen miles 
that day. The next day I directed my wagons, with 
a suitable guard, under command of Sergeant Kitch- 
en, to proceed directly to Hackberry Creek, while I 
scouted Twin Butte and Hackberry to find a trail. 
Corporal Morris, commanding the advance, about noon 
discovered a trail of twelve lodges. I then hunted 
up my wagons, abandoned one wagon and half my 
forage, rations, and camp-equipage, notified the com- 
manding officer at Fort Wallace of the fact, in order 
that they might be recovered, and started on the trail, 
at the rate of nearly five miles an hour, reaching the 
Smoky Hill River that night. 

"During the night it rained, and the trail followed 
with difficulty the next day to the Kansas Pacific 
Railroad, near Monument Station. 

"The Indians scattered after crossing the road, 
and a single trail was followed for several miles, when 

13 



—14— 

I was lost entirely. I then struck directly for the 
headwaters of the Solomon River, camped on it that 
night, and deliberated with Lieutenant Hewitt, Dr. 
Atkins, and Mr. Wheeler as to the best course to 
pursue. Three plans were proposed. One was to 
turn back and try and strike some one of the other 
bands that we had reason to believe were crossing 
north. Another to strike Sappa creek, follow it for 
a day or two, and then march south to Grinnel Sta- 
tion, and if we failed to find a trail on Sappa, we still 
had a chance to strike one of the other bands, which 
might cross the Kansas Pacific road near Grinnel. 
The last plan, and the one that was finally adopted, 
was to march in a northeast course to the North 
Beaver and follow it to its head, as it was believed 
the Indians would collect there, and follow it down 
for the purpose of hunting. 

"Shortly after daylight a hunters' trail was dis- 
covered, which was followed until we met a party of 
hunters, who informed me that the Indians I was 
after were on the North Fork of Sappa Creek, and 
had robbed their camp the day before while they were 
absent, and that they were going into Wallace, as 
they had reason to believe the Indians would attack 
them. Three of the hunters, Henry Campbell, 
Charles Schroder, and Samuel B. Srack, volunteered 
to conduct me to the vicinity of the Indian onmn 
which they thought was about seventeen mil c .^ 
where I met them. We marched about six miles and 
camped in a ravine until sundown, w T hen the march 
was continued to within about five miles oi" Sappa 
creek. 

"I then halted and went into camp on the prairie, 
and the three hunters accompanied by Mr. Wheeler, 
started to find the camp. Their efforts were success- 
ful, and we arrived at the North Fork of Sappa creek 
in the gray dawn of the morning, about three-quar- 



—15— 

ters of a mile above the camp, guided by the sight of 
a number of ponies grazing. I could not immediate- 
ly discover the camp, as I could not tell whether it 
was above or below the herd. Mr. Wheeler, who had 
ridden off some distance to the right, galloped furi- 
ously back swinging his hat and shouting at the top 
of his voice. I immediately galloped toward him 
with my command, and the camp was displayed to 
view. 

"My plan for the attack had been arranged as fol- 
lows: Sergeant Kitchen was detailed with ten men 
to surround the herd, kill the herders, round it up as 
near to the main command as possible, stay in charge 
of it with half his men, and send the rest to join me. 
Corporal Sharpies, with five men, was left with the 
wagon, with instructions to keep as near me as the 
very rugged and broken nature of the country would 
permit, always occupying high ground. With the 
rest of my command I intended to intrude myself be- 
tween the Indians and their herd and attack them if 
they did not surrender. 

"I will state here that the North Fork of Sappa 
creek at this point is exceedingly crooked, is bordered 
high and precipitous bluffs, and flows sluggishly 
through a marshy bottom, making it difficult to reach, 
and almost impossible to cross. As we charged down 
the side of the bluff I could see about ten or twelve 
Indians running rapidly up the bluff to a small herd 
of ponies— others escaped down the creek to another 
herd, while the remainder, the last to be awakened 
probably, seeing that they could not escape, prepared 
for a desperate defense. By this time I had reached 
the creek, which looked alarmingly deep and marshy. 
Knowing that no time was to be lost hunting a cros- 
sing, I plunged in with my horse, Mr. Wheeler with 
me. By extraordinary efforts our horses floundered 
through. A corporal, who followed, became mired, 



-,16— 

but by a desperate effort all managed to cross, just 
as a number of dusky figures with long rifles con- 
fronted us, their heads appearing over a peculiarly 
shaped bank, made so by the creek in high water. 
This bank, with the portion of the creek and bluffs in 
the immediate vicinity, possesses remarkable topogra- 
phical features, and I will endeavor to describe them. 
As we approach the creek from the south it is ob- 
served that it makes a sharp bend to the northeast, 
and then turns south for a short distance. The 
ground slopes from the top of the ridge near the 
creek, where it terminates abruptly in a semicircular 
crest concave toward it, and about five feet above 
another small slope which terminates at the creek. 
We crossed the creek at the termination of the south- 
ern arc; the Indian camp was at its northern termi- 
nation. A number of holes dug in the ground were 
on the chord of the arc. Some of the Indians took 
refuge in these holes — others lined the banks with 
their rifles resting on the crest. I formed my men 
rapidly into line and motioned the Indians to come in, 
as did Mr. Wheeler, who was on my left and a few 
feet in advance. One Indian, who appeared to be a 
chief, made some rapid gesticulations, which I at first 
thought was for a parley, but soon discovered it was 
directed to those in rear. I gave the command to fight 

on foot, which was obeyed with extraordinary pr< J 

ness. As the men dismounted the Indians firea, but 
excitedly. Fortunately no one was hit. I then or- 
dered my men to fire and posted them arounc 
crest in skirmish-line. If we imagine the dress-cir- 
cle of a theater to be lowered to within about five 
feet of the pit, the men to be deployed about the 
edge and the Indians down among the ochestra chairs, 
it will give some idea of our relative positions. The 
most exposed part was near the center of the arc, 
corresponding to that part of the dress-circle opposite 



—17— 

the entrance. Here Sergeant Theodore Papier and 
Private Robert Theims, Company H, Sixth Cavalry, 
were instantly killed while fighting with extraordi- 
nary courage. They did not appear to be more than 
15 or 20 feet from the Indians when they fell. After 
firing for about twenty minutes, arid the Indians hav- 
ing ceased firing, I withdrew my rr.en and their horses 
for the purpose of pursuing the Indians who had 
escaped. Hardly had we mounted when two Indians 
ran up to the two bodies, which had been carried 
some distance up the ridge I immediately detached 
three or four men at a gallop to charge them, and the 
Indians retreated, accomplishing nothing. Just then 
an Indian, gaudily decked, jumped from a hole, and 
with peculiar side-long leaps attempted to escape, 
which he did not. I then posted my men at the two 
ends of the crest, avoiding the center, and began 
again, the Indians returning the fire from their holes 
without any damage for some time, when the firing 
again ceased and I concluded all were dead. 

''Seeing a herd of ponies on the hill behind me, 
I sent two men to bring them in. A number of In- 
dians tried to cut them off. I mounted and went to 
their assistance, driving the Indians off and bringing 
in the herd. Coming back to burn the camp, a soli- 
tary shot was fired from the holes, striking the horse 
of Trumpeter Dawson through the body. I then con- 
cluded to make a sure finish, ordering Corporal Mor- 
ris with a detachment to advance to the edge of the 
crest, keeping up a continual fire, so that the Indians 
would not dare to show themselves above the crest; 
another detachment went to the left and rear, and 
all advanced together; some few shots were fired 
from the holes without any damage. Nearly all the 
Indians by this time were dead; occasionally a wound- 
ed Indian would thrust the barrel of a rifle from one 



—18— 

of the holes and fire, discovering himself to be dis- 
patched. 

"I have not been able to determine the original 
object of these holes or pits, but judge they were 
originally made for the shelter of those Indians who 
had no lodges, and were deepened and enlarged dur- 
ing the fight. 

"Nineteen dead warriors were counted; eight 
squaws and children were unavoidably killed by shots 
intended for the warriors. From the war-bonnets 
and rich ornaments, I judged two were chiefs, and 
one, whose bonnet was surmounted by two horns, to 
be a medicine-man. The Indians were nearly all 
armed with rifles and carbines, the Spencer carbine 
predominating. A number of muzzle-loading rifles, 
and one Springfield breech-loading rifle, musket- 
caliber .50, were found. 

"I then burned all their lodges and effects and 
threw some of the arms into the fire, destroying also 
a quantity of ammunition. There were twelve lodges, 
five or six covered with skins, and the other were the 
frames, composed of new hackberry poles. Eight 
rifles and carbines were brought to the post of Fort 
Wallace and have been turned in. 

"I then withdrew with the captured stock, num- 
bering 134 animals, to my wagon, which I cou] 
cern during the whole fight on a bluff about ; 'Ule 
distant. I judge the fight lasted about three hoi] 
Feeling certain that other bands were in the vicinity 
who would soon concentrate and attack me, ana at 
least recapture the stock, I marched to Monument 
Station, thirty-eight miles distant, reaching it about 
8 o'clock next morning. The march was continued 
to Sheridan Station that day where we were over- 
taken by a terrible norther, and I was forced to camp 
under a bank. The storm was so severe that it was 
impossible to herd the captured stock, our whole at- 



-^-19— 

tention being directed to save ourselves and horses 
from freezing to death. After a night of intense 
suffering among horses and men, the men having but 
one blanket each, and no tents— some of the men 
being frozen, and others who had dug holes in the 
bank for shelter, requiring to be dug out of the snow 
by their comrades— the storm abated and we split up 
in small squads to search for the captured stock. 
After a wearisome ride, occupying nearly all day, in 
which the faces and eyes of the men were injured by 
the reflection of the sun from the snow to such an 
extent as to necessitate medical treatment, eighty- 
nine ponies, one horse, (branded M, and recognized 
by some of the men as having been ridden by Private 
Pettyjohn, Company M, Sixth Cavalry, who was 
killed on McClellan Creek, Texas,) seven mules and 
one Spanish buro were recovered. Some of the rest 
may have perished by the storm, and some I believe 
will be picked up by citizens who have started, I un- 
derstand, in search of them. One thing is certain, 
they will never be of any service to the Indians. 

"I cannot find words to express the courage, pa- 
tience, endurance, and intelligence exhibited by all 
under my command. Lieut. C. C. Hewitt, Nine- 
teenth Infantry, although by his duties not required 
to be at the front, was under fire continually, exhi- 
bited great courage, and performed important service. 
Dr. F. H. Atkins gave proof of the greatest courage 
and fortitude, going up to the bodies of Sergeant 
Papier and Private Theims to examine them, when 
such an action appeared to be almost certain death; 
and again during the terrible suffering amidst the 
storm of the 25th, he was cheerful and full of words 
of encouragement to us all, exhibiting the greatest 
nerve when the stoutest heart despaired. 

"I respectfully recommend that Doctor Atkin's 
important services receive the consideration to which 



—20— 

they are entitled. All the men behaved with great 
gallantry. The following deserve special mention : 
Sergeant Richard L. Tea, Sergeant Frederick Platt- 
ner, Corporal William Morris, Trumpeter Michael 
Dawson, Privates James F. Ayres, Patrick J. Coyle, 
James Lowthers, Markus M. Robbins, Simpson Hor- 
nady, and Peter W. Gardner, all of Company H, Sixth 

Cavalry. 

"Mr. Homer W. Wheeler, post-trader of Fort 
Wallace, left his business and volunteered to accom- 
pany the detachment as a guide. His knowledge of 
the country and of Indian habits was of the utmost 
service. He risked his life to find the Indian camp; 
was the first to discover it in the morning, and al- 
though not expected to take part in the fight, was al- 
ways on the skirmish line, and showed the greatest 
courage and activity. The three hunters, Henry 
Campbell, Charles Schroeder, and Samuel B. Srack, 
who, with Mr. Wheeler, found the camp, performed 
important services; they participated in a portion of 
the fight and drove in a herd of ponies, which other- 
wise would not have been captured. When these 
men turned back with me, I promised that they would 
be suitably rewarded if they found the camp. I re- 
spectfully request that their services, as v 1] as those 
of Mr. Wheeler, be substantially acknowl< 

"I brought to the post, for intermei with the 
honors of war, the bodies of Sergeant ier and 

Private Theims. 

''Although none were wounded, a number of the 
men had balls pass through their clothing, and one 
ball passed through the cartridge-box (which had 
been moved to the fronts of Private Patrick Coyle. 

"One horse was abandoned, having been lamed; 
another was shot in the engagement, and fifteen are 
now temporarily unserviceable, rendered so by the 



—21— 

storm; nearly all of the men require medical treat- 
ment for the same reason. 

1 'There was found in the camp of the Indians a 
memorandum book containing rude though expres- 
sive sketches, made by themselves, of their exploits. 
Among a great number were the following, as I in- 
terpret them: The charge on the scouts at the battle 
of Red River; the attack on Adobe Walls and on 
Major Lyman's train; the killing of Private Petty- 
john, and another (of which I am not certain) repre- 
senting the murder of the Germain family." 



Henely's Conduct Praised 



Lieutenant Henely's report was forwarded by 
Fort Wallace's commander to General Pope, com- 
manding the Department of the Missouri, with the 
following endorsement: 

"The forethought, prudence and gallantry of 
Lieutenant Henely and all engaged entitle them to 
the highest praise of the Department Commander. 
It will be seen from the within report that these hos- 
tile Indians have received a blow from which it will 
take a long time to recover, and if followed up, will 
settle the question as far as the Cheyennes are con- 
cerned." 

Fallowing the receipt of this report General Pope 
issue an order announcing the affair to the troops of 
his nmand saying: 

Jhe Department Commander feels justified in 
saying that no better managed affair has occured in 
this Department for many years, and he commends 
it to the emulation of all as a brilliant example of in- 
telligent enterprise, rare zeal, and sound judgment, 
in the discharge of duty." 



The Germaine Tragedy 

[" N THE summer of 1874 the ire of the Plains Indi- 
■*■ ans, immediately to the south of the Kansas bor- 
der, was aroused on account of the wholesale de- 
struction of their game, principally the buffalo. A 
council of war was held among the various tribes and 
war declared upon the whites. 

This statement is supported by the following ex- 
tract from the annual report for 1874 of General John 
Pope, then commanding the Department of the 
Missouri, with headquarters at Fort Leavenworth, 
Kansas, who said: 

"A trading post, as is understood, not with any 
permit or license was established by some persons 
doing business in Dodge City, at Adobe Walls, in the 
Panhandle of Texas, and far beyond the limits of this 
department, to trade with the Cheyennes and Arapa- 
hoes, and such other Indians as might come there, 
but mainly to supply the buffalo hunters, whose con- 
tinuous pursuit and wholesale slaughter of the buf- 
falo, both summer and winter, had driven the great 
herds down into the Indian reservations. This trad- 
ing-post sold arms and ammunition, whisky, etc., not 
only to the hunters, but to the Indians, and the very 
arms and ammunition thus furnished to the Indians 
they afterwards used to attack and break up this 
trading-post, which was put there to enable the white 
hunters to invade unlawfully the Indian reservation. 
There can be no doubt, from the facts that have 
reached these headquarters from good authority, that 
the present difficulties with the Cheyennes were 

mainly caused by the unlawful intrusion and illegal 
22 




Major General JOHN POPE, United States Army 

Entered the Army, 1838, Retired, 1886. 

Died, September 23, 1892. 



—24- 

and violent acts of the white hunters. When the 
Cheyennes made their attack upon this trading-post, 
they were badly repulsed, but the proprietors made 
an application, through the Governor of Kansas, not 
for protection of life, but to enable them to keep up 
their trading-post and the illicit traffic which had 
brought on this Indian war. As I did not consider it 
right to defend such traffic, I declined to send a force 
for any such purpose, and the traders, it is under- 
stood, left there and brought back the goods to the 
settlement. 

"Beginning in this manner, the trouble increas- 
ed until the whole of the Cheyennes and most of the 
Commanches and Kiowas were involved in it, and it 
became necessary to make some general movement 
of troops against these Indians." 

One of the tragic incidents of that outbreak oc- 
curred on the Kansas Plains in the summer of 1874. 
A Missouri family, named Germaine, originally hail- 
ing from Georgia, decided on seeking a home in Col- 
orado. The family consisted of eight persons, father 
and mother, son and five daughters. The Germaines 
had passed through the Smoky Hill river section of 
Kansas and supposed was well out of the reach of 
the hostiles who infested that part of the state. They 
had hoped to arrive safely at their destination, with- 
in a day or two. While in camp they were over- 
taken by a band of hostile Cheyennes who killed 
father, mother, son and the eldest daughter, a crip- 
ple, taking the four remaining daughters into captiv- 
ity. The four girls remained in the hands of the 
Indians until rescued the following winter by U. S. 
troops under command of Colonel Nelson A. Miles, 
Fifth Infantry. The two youngest girls, Adelaide 
and Julia, were rescued under the immediate com- 



-25- 



mand of Lieutenant Frank D. Baldwin 1 , Fifth Infan- 
try, on November 8, having- driven the Indians from 
their stronghold and forcing them to the open Staked 
Plains. 



General Miles' Story of the Rescue 

Lieutenant General Nelson A. Miles, in his "Per- 
sonal Recollections, "embracing the thrilling stories 
of his Indian campaigns, gives the following inter- 
esting account of the rescue of the Germaine girls: 

"Lieutenant F. D. Baldwin, with his detach- 
ment, and Troop D, 6th Cavalry, and Company D, 
5th Infantry, attacked a camp of chief Blue Beard, 
Cheyenne Indians, on the north branch of McClellan 
Creek on November 8, and in a spirited engagement 
drove the Indians out of their camp to the Staked 
Plains again. 

"In the engagement he rescued two white girls 
that were held in captivity by these Indians, named 
Julia and Adelaide Germaine, whose parents had 
been killed in Western Kansas. Here we first learn- 
ed that besides these two, the two elder sisters were 

1 Lieutenant Frank D. Baldwin (now Brigadier-General, 
U. S. Army, retired) has the distinction of being the only 
officer on the rolls of the Army, past or present, to possess 
j„i„ Q £ h onor awarded for conspicuous gallantry and 
ction. The first he received for distinguished 
; the battle of Peach Tree Creek, Ga., July 20, 1864, 

rhile serving as captain, 19th Michigan Infantry, the sec- 
tor lantry and distinguished bravery in the action 
against tne Cheyennes near McLellan's Creek, Tex., and 
which resulted in the rescue of the- two little girls which were 
left behind by the Indians in their sudden flight from camp. 
The official announcement of the award of the award of the 
medal says "in attacking the Indians with two companies, D, 
6th Cavalry, and D, 5th Infantry, forcing the,m from their 
strong position and pursuing them until utterly routed, while 
first lieutenant, 5th Infantry." 



—26— 

still in the hands of the Indians. It was surprising 
to see the sympathy and emotion of the soldiers and 
trainmen as they listened to the story from the lips 
of those two little half-starved girls. One teamster, 
as the tears rolled down his cheeks, remarked: 'I 
have driven my mules over these plains for three 
months, but I will stay forever or until we get those 
other girls.' These little children were sent back in 
charge of Dr. Powell 1 to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 
where they were well taken care of. On his return 
Dr. Powell brought with him a photograph 2 which he 
had taken of them in their improved condition and 
which was used in an important event that occurred 
two months later. 

"The campaign continued through the autumn, 
the purpose being to make that remote country, which 
the Indians had formerly used as their retreating 
ground, untenable for them until they should be 
brought under subjection. As they had been defeat- 
ed in so many engagements, the weakest of the 
Indians began to retreat back to the agency in small 
numbers, and the approach of cold weather was hav- 
ing its effect on all tribes that remained in hostility. 
Their ponies had been so much worn down by their 
being kept constantly on the move that when winter 
struck them in their weakened condition they died 
by hundreds on the cold bleak plains. 

"Finally, in January, believing that those still 
remaining out were in a disposition to surrender, I 

1 Colonel Junius Levert Powell is a native of Virginia and 
was appointed to the army as an assistant surgeon from 
Maryland in 1878. He was retired from active service with 
the rank of lieutenant colonel in May, 1908. His present 
residence is "The Dresden," Washington, D. C. 

2 Mr. E. E. Henry, then a leading photographer of Leaven- 
worth, was sent for and photographed the girls. Mr. Henry 
is still living in Leavenworth, but long since retired from 
professional activities. 



—27— 

sent a message to them demanding their surrender; 
and the friendly Indian who carried the dispatch also 
took with him the photograph of the two little Ger- 
maine girls, with the injunction to place it unknown 
to the Indians, in the hands of one of the captives, if 
he could find them. They found the hostile camp on 
the Staked Plains on a tributary of the Pecos River, 
on the border of New Mexico. 

"The Indian carrying the photograph of the lit- 
tle girls when unobserved quietly placed it in the 
hands of the eldest, giving her the first knowledge 
she had chat her sisters were living and that they 
had been rescued. On the back of the photograph 
was a message reading as follows: 

"Headquarters Indian Territory Expedition," 

In the Field, Jan. 2, 1875. 
To the misses germaine: Your little sisters are 
well, and in the hands of friends. Do not be dis- 
couraged. Every effort is being made for your wel- 
fare. 

(Signed) NELSON A. MILES, 

Colonel and Brevet Major General, U. S. Army, 
Commanding Expedition. 

"The girl afterwards told me that she was al- 
most wild with joy on receiving the message. Up to 
that time she had not had a single ray of hope and 
did not know that anyone knew where they were or 
that they were alive, or that they would ever see the 
faces of white people again. She said that from that 
tim ntil they were finally restored the hope of ul- 
relief gave them courage to endure their 
hardships. With the demand for the surrender of 
the Indians when it was delivered, was a message to 
the chief saying that no peace could be made except 
on condition that they brought in alive the prisoners 
they had in their hands. The chief at once sent for 
these two girls and placed them in a tent next to his 



—28— 

own, and had them well cared for, and the whole 
body immediately commenced to move toward the 
east, traveling through the storms of winter and over 
the snow and ice a distance of more than two hun- 
dred miles to their agency, where they finally sur- 
rendered. 

"After the surrender of the Indians the warriors 
were formed in the presence of the troops, and the 
two elder Germaine girls went along down the line 
pointing out to the officers the different men who had 
been engaged in the murder of their family, and in 
other atrocities; and to the number of seventy-five, 
these men were taken out of the camp and placed 
under guard and taken under the charge of Cap- 
tain Pratt to St. Augustine, Florida 1 . 

"At the close of the campaign the rescued Ger- 
maine girls were sent to Fort Leavenworth, and I 
was appointed their guardian. I secured a provision 
in the appropriation by Congress diverting ten 
thousand dollars from the annuities of the offending 

1 These Indians passed through Fort Leavenworth en route 
to the place of their banishment. Of this incident General 
Miles furnishes this account in his "Personal Recollections": 
"Minimic, one of the principal chiefs, asked me to take his 
son, young Minimic — who was, I think, one of the handsom- 
est Indians I have ever seen — a stalwart young man of about 
twenty-two years — and to teach him the ways of the white 
men. I appreciated the sentiment, but at the same time I 
realized the futility of trying to accomplish any good results 
with but one Indian, and without any system of general im- 
provement. Thinking the matter over, I was prompted to 
urge upon the government as strongly as possible that the 
Indian youth be given an opportunity to improve their con- 
dition, and in my report of that expedition and its results I 
urged an entire change in the system of goverment and man- 
agement of these Indians. Wherever the suggestion has 
been tried, it has been eminently successful. Out of Captain 
Pratt's judicious management of this body of wild, savage 
murderers has grown the great Industrial School at Carlisle, 
Pennsylvania." 



—29— 

Indians, to be given to them. This sum was set 
apart for the benefit of these girls, the interest to go 
for their support during their minority, and the prin- 
cipal to be divided and given to them on reaching 
their majority. They are now married, and are oc- 
cupying happy, though widely separated homes in 
Kansas, Colorado and California/' 



Another Version of the Rescue 



General W. H. Carter 1 in his book "From York- 
town to Santiago with the Sixth Cavalry/' gives this 
version of the rescue of the two older Germaine girls 
who were in the hands of Stone Calf's" band: 

1 Awarded a medal of honor for distinguished bravery in 
action against hostile Apache Indians at Cibicu Creek, Ariz., 
August 30, 1881, while serving as first lieutenant and regi- 
mental quartermaster and acting adjutant, 6th Cavalry. 

2 Stone Calf, in his day, was a very troublesome Indian. 
Following the campaign of 1874-5 he located on the reserva- 
tion near Fort Supply. One of his daughters was married to 
Amos Chapman, a noted scout and guide, and through him 
exercised considerable influence with the authorities. The 
trading firm of Lee & Reynolds at Fort Supply, was also en- 
abled, through Chapman, to secure the good will of Stone 
Calf and his band. For many years this firm furnished under 
contract the hay used by the government at that post which 
red off the Indian reserve at a very small cost, com- 
pared o the price secured from the government. When the 

yehnea and Arapahoes decided to lease their grazing 

unds to the cattlemen, Stone Calf and his band would not 
influenced in their action by the Supply traders. The 
opposition on his part to the leases continued to grow. At 
any rate, he, with his white abettors, got up such an Indian 
scare in the summer of 1885 that the southern Kansas border 
became aflame with rumors of massacre and Indian invasion 
from the south. Troops were sent down, but the only Indians 
to be found were those on the reservation. The President 
sent two commissioners — Generals Sheridan and Miles — to 
investigate. When Stone Calf and his band had given their 
version of conditions down there, General Sheridan wired the 



—30— 

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas H. Neill, 1 Sixth Cav- 
alry, commanding a camp near Cheyenne Agency, 
sent an Indian runner to Stone Calf's village with 
this note on January 20, 1875: 

To Katherine Elizabeth or to Sophia Louisa Germaine, 

white women, now in the hands of the hostile 

Cheyennes with Grey Beard or Stone Calf: 

"I send you these few lines to tell you that your 
younger sisters, Julia and Nancy, are safe and well 
and have been sent home to Georgia. Your sad cap- 
tivity is known all over the country and every effort 
to obtain your release will be made. Read this note 
to Stone Calf or Grey Beard, and say to Stone Calf 
that his message asking peace has been received, and 
that I will receive him and his band upon condition 
that he shall send you and your sister in first, and 
then he can come in with his band and give himself 
up to the mercy of the government, and I will re- 
ceive him. I send you with this, pencil and paper. 
Write me Stone Calf's answer, and anything else you 
may desire; I think the Indians will make no objec- 
tion. 

"Stone Calf's village had been located on the 
Staked Plains, near the Pecos river, but on February 
14, 1875, he moved to near Custer's old battle-ground. 

President that the leases be abrogated, the wire fences taken 
down and the herds removed within forty days. Such sud- 
den action meant immense losses to the owners of the cattle. 
Men of much influence besought the President to give more 
time. He declined, and as a result numerous fortunes were 
wiped out of existence. The Indians themselves were heavy 
loosers financially. The thousands of dollars paid them an- 
nually no longer came to tickel their palms, while Stone Calf 
and his band of ruffians secured their former graft. Colonel 
Dyer, the agent at Darlington, was removed, and Captain 
Jesse M. Lee, 9th Infantry, appointed to serve as agent for 
the two tribes. 

Colonel Neill entered the army in 1843 and died in 1885. 



-31— 

Two more troops were added to Colonel Neill's com- 
mand in order that he might force a surrender, but 
by the exercise of patience, the unhappy girls were 
rescued without a fight, and this was followed on 
February 26, by Stone Calf's surrender with 1600 
Cheyennes. 

"The condition of the two Germaine girls was 
pitiable in the extreme. They declined being sent 
to Georgia, stating they had no relatives or associa- 
tions there to take them back, and desired to go to 
school somewhere in Kansas. They were sent to 
Fort Leavenworth, where they were taken in charge 
by a worthy family ." 



Surgeon Powell's Recollections 

Subsequent to the rescue of the two younger 
Germaine girls Surgeon Powell was commissioned by 
General Miles to conduct them to Fort Leavenworth. 
Responding to a request for his recollection s of that 
journey Colonel Powell contributed the following: 

"Of course you know all of the circumstances 
attending the dash made upon the Indian camp on 
the Llano Estacado, with a company of the Fifth 
Infantry and a troop of the Sixth Cavalry. The two 

v^i^ o^- r ved and naked Germaine children were 

the camp of the savages, but in their wild flight 
to escape from the soldiers, the Indians left the 
children, and as I was the proper one to look out for 

x The gins were placed in the home of Patrick Corney, an 
employe of the Quartermaster's Department at Fort Leaven- 
worth. Later, upon General Miles' recommendation, Mr. 
Corney was appointed guardian of the girls by the Probate 
Court of Leavenworth Count}^. Some time in T876 Mr. Corney 
removed to Sabetha, Kansas, to engage in agriculture. The 
Germaine girls went with him, later married, and are now 
living iu different sections of the country, that being the last 
report from the Interior Deparment. 



—32— 

them, General Miles directed me to take charge of 
them, until further disposed of. Very soon after 
the fight I started off by ambulance and escort for 
Camp Supply, a distance of some sixty or eighty 
miles, if I remember correctly, where the ladies of 
the Camp took the little girls in charge and quickly 
made themselves busy in organizing a sewing bee, 
to equip the little ones with clothes. You know their 
parents, and a brother and sister were massacred up 
on the Republican [Smoky Hill] river, in Kansas, by 
the same band of redskins. I don't remember how 
many of the Indians we killed in the brush, but there 
were a number that took passage to the happy hunt- 
ing ground for their fiendish act. After they had 
been well clad and fed up with proper food, I started 
with a relief ambulance and escort, the latter all im- 
portant, as the prairies were full of the red devils, 
for Fort Dodge, Kansas, where the officers' wives 
again nobly came to my assistance. The distance 
from Supply to Dodge is, I believe, one hundred 
miles. How long I was on the road from General 
Miles' headquarters out on the plains to Camp Supply 
I can not now recall, but I do remember that soon 
after starting on the latter section of the trip we 
were caught in a terrible snowstorm, and I was glad 
enough, at last, to get to a point of safety. The 
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway had then been 
constructed as far west as Dodge City, Kansas, so 
that I found much more comfortable transportation 
for myself and the pitiful little girls, on to Fort 
Leavenworth, where in obedience to my orders 
I reported and delivered my charge to General Pope, 
who was in command of the Missouri Department. 
He found a home for them in some family at the 
fort and the officers' wives again interested them- 
selves in their behalf. God bless the women. What 
would we do without them." 



Dull Knife's Escape and Capture 

THE NORTHERN Cheyennes, under Dull Knife, 
numbering nearly one thousand, were transfer- 
red in August, 1877, to the Reno reservation, in the In- 
dian Territory, now a part of Oklahoma, to join and live 
with the southern band of the same tribe. These 
Indians, however, soon tired of their new home. 
They had intermarried with the Ogalalla or Red 
Cloud Sioux, and longed to return and join their 
friends. On the night of September 9, 1878, Dull 
Knife and his band, more than three hundred in 
number, left their lodges and started north. Among 
them were 87 warriors. 

All of the cavalry at Reno and Supply were sent 
in pursuit, and the Twenty-third Infantry, sta- 
tioned at Fort Leavenworth, was hurriedly mounted 
and sent out on the Union Pacific to intercept the 
escaping band. 

In his annual report for 1878 General Pope ex- 
pressed the belief they would not kill or do any dam- 
age, except to kill what cattle they needed for food 
on the way. If attacked, he thought, they would 
\>;ht \ pre: as they would never return south. Not- 
ing the General's optimistic view as to 
■able intentions, they passed over western 
msas where they killed settlers, burned houses, 
and committed many atrocities. After a march of 
six hundred miles without the troops being able to 
intercept them, the band surrendered in Northern 
Nebraska (Department of the Platte) under the con- 
dition that they should be taken to Dakota. 

How well this pact with the Indians was kept is 

33 



—34- 

told by General Crook in his report for 1879, whose 
troops secured Dull Knife's surrender: 

* 'Among these Cheyenne Indians were some of the 
bravest and most efficient of the auxiliaries who had 
acted under General Mackenzie and myself in the 
campaign against the hostile Sioux in 1876 and 1877, 
and I still preserve a grateful rememberance of their 
distinguished services which the government seems 
to have forgotten. 

"In the arduous labor involved in the pursuit of 
these Cheyennes, I deem it my duty to speak in terms 
of warm commendation of the services rendered by 
the commands of Majors Thornburgh and Carlton 
and that under Colonel Tilford, Seventh Cavalry, 
from the Department of Dakota, operating within 
the limits of this department. 

"The captured Cheyennes were taken to Fort 
Robinson, Nebr. , and there confined in a set of 
company quarters. They repeated their expressions 
of desire to live at peace with our people, but said 
they would kill themselves sooner than be taken 
back to the Indian Territory. These statements 
were confirmed by Red Cloud and other friendly 
Sioux chiefs, who assured us that the Cheyennes 

General Crook died in March, 1890, at Chicago, 111. No 
other personality in the army knew the dead General's noble 
character so well as his aid, Major (now Brigadier General, 
retired), C. S. Roberts, who said of his dead chief: "He was 
the greatest Indian fighter of the country, but he was never 
an Indian hater. He was the Indian's friend. He knew the 
Indian better than the Indian did. He never promised him 
anything he did'nt mean to give. He never lied to him. The 
Indians feared him, but they respected him, and his ability to 
deal with them was recognized in other lines than the mili- 
tary. He was the only man in the country to deal with 
Indians. He knew their rights and he knew their wrongs, 
and he used to study the whole night through, anxiously try- 
ing to contrive ways to secure justice for them without injury 
to the nation." 



—35— 

had left their reservation in the Indian Territory to 
avoid fever and starvation, and that they would die, 
to the last man, woman, and child, before they could 
be taken from the quarters in which they were con- 
fined. All this information was promptly reported 
to higher authority, and instructions urgently re- 
quested; but no action was taken until the very last 
days of December, when orders were received to re- 
move them south. At this time the thermometer at 
Fort Robinson showed a range of from zero down to 
nearly 40 u below (the freezing point of mercury). 
The captives were without adequate clothing, and no 
provision had been made to supply it until very late 
in the season, which occasioned a further delay until 
the beginning of January. 

"The Cheyennes had now become satisfied that 
their complaints would not be considered, and the 
situation of affairs became desperate. They de- 
manded several times to be informed whether or not 
they were to be taken back south to the Indian Ter- 
ritory, and reiterated their determination to die 
rather than leave the post of Fort Robinson. Two or 
three of their party were anxious to yield, but their 
comrades threatened their lives if they made any 
attempt to leave the building. Every argument 
failed; every persuasion was tried. To have entered 
the building to seize the ringleaders would have been 
I: 1 for the commencement of a fearful and 

unnecessary carnage; the Indians had dug rifle-pits 
comma-., 'ng all entrances, and were supplied with 
knives d slings, made by breaking the stoves in 
their quarters. Having tried every means in his 
power and failed, and there being no change in the 
orders from Washington, Captain Wessells, the 
officer in charge, had no alternative but a resort to 
harsh measures. He made overtures to the chiefs 
and headmen to let the women and children come 



-36— 

out from the building, so that they might not suffer 
in any conflict that might arise; but the Indians de- 
fiantly rejected every attempt at compromise, saying 
'We'll all die here together sooner than be sent 
south'. 

" Captain Wessells then stopped the issue of 
food and fuel, hoping to bring them more speedily to 
terms. I may say here that this measure, criticised 
by the rules for the theoretical management of In- 
dians, seems to have been a severe one; but I ask, 
and I claim to have had as much experience in the 
management of Indian tribes as any man in this 
country, what alternative could have been adopted? 
During the twenty-seven years of my experience 
with the Indian question, I have never known a band 
of Indians to make peace with our government and 
then break it, or leave their reservation, without 
some ground of complaint; but until their complaints 
are examined and adjusted, they will constantly give 
annoyance and trouble. 

"In the present case, the Cheyennes claimed 
that they had been wronged, and had become as des- 
perate as a pack of wolves. The Army had orders 
to take them back to the Indian Territory, and had 
no option in the matter. It seems to me to have been, 
to say the least, a very unnecessary exercise of 
power to insist upon this particular portion of the 
band going back to their former reservation, while 
the other fragments of the same band, which sur- 
rendered to the troops on the Yellowstone or escaped 
to the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail Reservations, had 
been allowed to remain north unmolested, more es- 
pecially since we have every reason to believe that 
the latter were the principal actors in the outrages 
perpetrated in Kansas, and know that they murdered 
several persons since the surrender of those confined 
at Fort Robim 



Id 12.8^? 



—37— 

"About the dead of night, on the 9th of January, 
the Cheyennes made a sudden break through the 
windows and doors of their place of confinement, 
shooting down the sentinels with arms they had 
managed to obtain, and possessing themselves, in 
addition, of the carbines and revolvers of the soldiers 
killed. After this they moved in one compact mass 
toward the high bluffs back of the post, fighting 
desperately all the while, women with men. It was 
impossible, in the darkness, cold, excitement, and 
confusion, to avoid the deplorable results that might 
be expected. A number of the squaws were killed 
and wounded in the affray, although officers and men 
used every care to capture, where possible, without 
inflicting injuries, and a number of our men froze 
hands and feet while taking women and children 
back to the post." 

The survivors, women and children, seventy-five 
in number, were sent to dwell with their relatives, 
the Ogalalla Sioux at the Pine Ridge Agency, South 
Dakota. 

Severe criticism was passed upon the Army fol- 
lowing this "unnecessary exercise of power," which 
fell with such crushing force upon Dull Knife and 
his band. The people regarded this action as wanton 
slaughter, not knowing that the Indian Bureau de- 
clined to heed the appeals of the Army in behalf of 
these unfortunate Indians. The duty of the Army 
was plain. The result of its obedience is now histo- 
ry and th* 'eponsibility rests elsewhere. 



The Army and the Indians 

"There is no class of men in this country who 
are so disinclined to war with the Indians as the 
Army stationed among them." This was the view 
expressed by the late General John Pope, when dis- 



—38— 

cussing the Indian question in an official report in 
1875, three years preceding the outbreak at Fort 
Robinson. 'The Army", he said, "had nothing to 
gain by war with Indians; on the contrary, it has 
everything to lose. In such a war it suffers all the 
hardship and privation, and, exposed as it is to the 
charge of assassination if Indians are killed; to the 
charge of inefficiency if they are not; to misrepre- 
sentation by the agents who fatten on the plunder of 
the Indians, and misunderstood by worthy people at 
a distance, who are deceived by these very agents 
and their following, the soldier has little to expect 
from the public feeling. Nevertheless, he is so 
placed under present arrangements and orders that 
he has no power whatever on the Indian reservation 
to redress or prevent wrongs which drive Indians to 
war; on the contrary, at the demand of the very 
agent whose unfair dealings with the Indians has 
brought on the difficulty, he is obliged to pursue and 
force back to the same deplorable state and place 
Indians whom he knows to have been wronged, and 
who have only done substantially what he would 
have done himself under like provocation. Such a 
relation to Indian affairs and Indian agents is unjust 
and unfair to the army and a serious injury both to 
the interests of the Government and the well being 
of the Indians." 










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